Where We Belong
by silverdragon917
Summary: When the one you love leaves, time without them is almost unbearable. But when they come back all the time without them seems worth it. Nezumi has been gone for three years, but when he comes back will everything be the same? NezumixShion


**A/N: So I watched this at my friends request, and this fic just kind of came to me at a strange hour of the night so I decided to type it up. It's another Nezumi homecoming story, which are about a dime a dozen, but I hope that this one stands out just a little bit. I'm not sure if I'm going to write any more for this pairing, like I said, this one just kind of came to me.**

**So please read, review, and enjoy.**

**silverdragon**

Where We Belong

I waited for three years. Waited for Nezumi to come back and finally accept what we had, whatever that was exactly.

Waiting wasn't easy, not in the slightest. The constant worry that followed me everywhere as I waited for Nezumi to come back to me. Everywhere I went I thought about him. When I went to see people who I had known while staying with him always reminded me of the time we had spent together. I couldn't seem to go see a play without crying, even if it was supposed to be a happy one. Everything seemed to be upside down and backwards without him in my world.

Rebuilding wasn't easy either. No. 6 had to be rebuilt, turned into something that was better than the political giant it once was. The only problem was no one knew where to start. No one wanted something that could overpower the people and keep them in the dark the way No. 6 had. So they opted to try for democracy, and that seemed to work. Elected officials running the city and keeping everyone informed.

Next everyone began on the buildings, recreating homes and businesses, trying to get the city back to some kind of normalcy. And although my own home was rebuilt as one of the first, it still felt empty. Sure my mom was still living with me, running the bakery from the bottom floor like always, but something seemed to be missing to me, and I knew exactly what, or rather who that was.

Nezumi.

He hadn't returned after a month. So I kept waiting. Then after a year I started to panic. What if something had happened to him? What if he could never return back to me? Thankfully DogKeeper managed to talk me out of trying to go after him. Saying something along the lines of, "He's smart enough to not get killed."

I still wanted to go after him, but then I realized that he was better off in the world then I was. Of the many things Nezumi had taught me, he made me realize that I was only book smart, not street smart the way he was. If I were to go after him he would probably end up having to come save me, and that was not something I wanted to happen again.

So I stopped panicking, but after two years I started to get even more worried. What if he'd found someone else? What if he'd forgotten about me? What if he was never coming back? My mother was the one to talk me out of going after him that time.

She said, "Shion, he needs to find his own way in this world. He loves you, and when he finds himself he will come back to you."

That had calmed me down and I managed to last another year. Now I was just impatient, tired of waiting for someone who didn't seem to care enough to even write.

And then it happened.

He just showed up at my doorstep, looking cold and travel weary.

It was a cold day in October, the leaves just beginning to change and fall off the trees. The wind seemed to blow him into town again, and just as he had left, he came back again.

The bakery had closed a few hours before, and just as I was sitting down to enjoy a book, or play rather, there came a knock on the door.

I was caught totally unawares. One minute I'm opening the door, the next I'm wrapped into the warm embrace of the man I had been waiting for three years. I returned it without hesitation, throwing all of my love and worry into the embrace.

I was so happy I started crying, bawling like a child in Nezumi's arms. He soothed me, hugging me tighter, whispering soft declarations of love in my ear. When I was finished he came inside, taking off his coat and sitting on the couch.

Looking at him, I could just tell that he belonged there, sitting in my living room and looking at me with eyes that expressed three years' worth of emotion. There was pain, and hope, and love, and adoration, and worry, all mixed into the eyes that I love.

We still hadn't said a word to each other, neither of us quite sure what to say. So I sat next to him, finally giving in and saying the first thing they came to mind as I rested my head in his broad shoulder.

"God I missed you," the words broke the quiet and I could feel him stiffen underneath my cheek.

"Did you really?" He seemed to be in shock, and the words just kind of slipped out.

I looked at his face, took in the strong set of his jaw and the flush from the wind on his cheeks, "Of course I did. I almost went out to find you a couple of times."

"Really? Why would you want to do that?" there was a hint of surprise in his tone, and an even larger hint of disbelief, almost as if he couldn't believe that I would even think to go after him.

I snuggled deeper into his chest, feeling his heartbeat, strong and steady on my ear, "I was worried you had gotten killed, or had forgotten about me," I said the words in the smallest voice possible, but he heard them anyway.

Now he had a small smile on his face, and he brought a hand up to grip around me almost possessively, "Why would I ever forget you? How could I? You were all I ever thought about, and every time I thought about coming back to you I got this warm feeling in my heart. I was worried that you would have given up on me ever coming back. I thought that maybe you'd found someone else by now."

"Nezumi," his name came off my lips while my stomach did little flips, "How could you ever think I would forget about you?"

"You don't have much room to judge, you had thought that I had done the same," his tone was chastising, but playful, and I realized all at once how much I had truly missed him.

"That's true enough. But Nezumi, what took you so long in coming back to me?" I was forever curious, and this was a question I needed to be answered.

"It took me longer to find what I was looking for then I thought."

The answer was short, but for some reason I completely understood. What had happened to us that day had changed us both, and while I had managed to accept it, Nezumi had needed to discover the answers on his own. That combined with the freedom he felt after destroying No. 6 must have driven him out into the world, and away from me for a time.

Now he was back though, and I wasn't going to let him go without taking me with him.

With my question finally answered I had one final request, "Tell me about your travels."

So he started talking. About his trip through forests, cities, towns, to the ocean and back again. I got to hear about the people he met, the things he saw, the places he stayed. The thing I loved the most was the stories he heard. Fables, myths and legends, woven by ancestors long past and brought down through the years. Wonderful tales of sea monsters and magical creatures woven through the fabric of time and based on small facts and truths. There were even stories about the bees and Elyurias, things that made what had happened on that day just a little more understandable.

Nezumi talked long into the night, and when he finished we sat there in silence for what felt like forever. I was content to sleep right there, on the couch in his arms, but I knew that probably wasn't a good idea.

So I pulled him off the couch and brought him further into the house. The design was different from the last time we'd been here, but it was generally the same, just a few walls had been moved in the rebuild. I took him to my room, we did have a guest room, but that was full boxes and baking supplies. Plus I wanted him to sleep with me, like the first time we had met, to remember the things we had shared through the years.

I made him take his shoes off, and threw a pair of sleeping cloths at him. I had kept them just in case something like this happened. I had guessed his size, and it was only after he had changed that I realized he'd lost weight on his travels. He still had the strong build I remember, he was just thinner a little bit less filled out.

The lack of weight made his figure seem even more feminine, and I caught myself wondering if he would try to go back to the theater to continue with his acting. Nezumi always seemed to be in his element when he was on stage whether dressed as a woman as his counterpart Eve, or acting as a man in one of Shakespeare's great works.

I always loved seeing him act. Watching him read the lines with such emotion, such passion that the rest of the world just seemed to fade away.

When we had finally got into the bed together he seemed so stiff, as if he had not expected to be welcomed back into my life so quickly. I decided to make him just a little bit more uncomfortable, wrapping my arms around his torso and resting my head on his chest, listening to the fast Thu-Thump of his heart.

He'd almost stopped breathing at this point, either so caught up in the moment that he had forgotten, or so scared that he didn't dare to breathe for fear of doing something wrong.

So I turned to look him in the eye, watching his face switch back and forth between emotions until it finally settled on nervous and scared.

I smiled at him, "Just kiss me already you idiot."

That seemed to snap him out of his shyness, and he became the man that I remembered from three years ago. Cocky, street smart, beautiful, independent, and most of all, loyal.

He kissed me with a passion that took my breath away. And as he pulled me closer I could tell that this is where we both belonged. Together, and in each other's arms.

And I hope we always stay that way.


End file.
